Helen Mirren

You know when you’re a kid and you write letters to Santa Claus? Pretend you’re actually a middle aged man suffering from depression, you write a letter to the universe and, BOOM Helen Mirren shows up in response! But she’s not Santa Claus, she’s Death.

Back when he was a full-time pro wrestler, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson built his reputation on his inspired mic work, and particularly the inventive way he insulted his opponents. Guys who dared challenge his WWE supremacy were “jabronis” and “roody poo candy asses.” Said candy asses would face the wrath of a smackdown, verbal and otherwise. He’d ask them a question, like “What’s your name?” then interrupt before they could answer. (“It doesn’t matter what your name is!!”) Or Johnson would tell them to grab something and stick it straight up their candy asses. (You may begin to sense a theme here.)

You’ve probably heard that Vin Diesel recently became the first celebrity to reach over 100 million likes on Facebook — a level of validation that mere mortals such as you or I may never know. A lot of those likes are the result of Diesel’s commitment to his fans and to sharing photos from his new films, like the latest pic from the set of Fast 8, which features your new favorite BFF pairing: Diesel and Dame Helen Mirren.

Last year, Helen Mirren declared her love for the Fast & Furious franchise and, in particular, Vin Diesel, who was pretty convinced that Furious 7 could win the Oscar for Best Picture. It looks like Fast 8 will have a much better chance of securing a nomination (at the very least) as Mirren says she’s joined the cast of the upcoming sequel. And now we patiently wait as the greatest friendship of our time blossoms, inevitably yielding a series of delightful photos featuring Mirren and Diesel.

One of the most compelling actresses in the world is about to take on one of the most compelling true stories of all time, which makes this movie an instant must-see. Helen Mirren is closing a deal to play Sarah Winchester in a new supernatural thriller based on the unnervingly strange story of the heir to the famed rifle manufacturing fortune. Simply titled Winchester, the project comes from the directing duo behind Daybreakers and Predestination.

At first glance, Eye in the Sky might make you think of Good Kill, the drone warfare thriller from last year starring Ethan Hawke. Or maybe Homeland. But Eye in the Sky has something those things don’t: Helen Mirren. The legendary actress stars in the intriguing new drama as a UK colonel out to stop Kenyan terrorists, the way you never knew you always wanted to see her.

When the first trailer for Jay Roach’s Trumbo dropped this past summer, I thought I was getting a brief peek at what would become one of fall’s most buzzed about biopics and with an Oscar-worthy leading role. After all, it stars Bryan Cranston as Dalton Trumbo, the politically undeterred Hollywood screenwriter blacklisted for his Communist beliefs during the Red Scare. A movie about movies with a great cast, what could go wrong? But that’s just the thing with biopics, especially ones about Hollywood, which face the risk of mistaking homage for pastiche.

Bryan Cranston took a little break from leading roles since the end of Breaking Bad, which might have been a smart move after being so prevalent in our pop culture consciousness for several years. But that’s changing with Trumbo, the new film in which Cranston stars as the famously disgraced screenwriter, and the first trailer is quite fetching.

Helen Mirren is an Oscar winner and a multi-time Golden Globe winner. She has a few Best Actress awards from the Cannes Film Festival, and a couple Emmys as well. She’s a Dame of the British Empire. As far as actors go, she is amongst the most respected in the entire world.

Russell Crowe pretty much just inserted his own foot into his privileged male mouth. It’s hardly news that actresses face sexism, ageism, and other sorts of unpleasant -isms in Hollywood, but the actor thinks their complaints about ageism specifically are “bulls---”—which is both a willfully ignorant and completely sexist opinion. Hey, Mr. Crowe, ageism in Hollywood, much like dry land in ‘Waterworld,’ is not a myth.